Do you support removing the item upgrade feature?

I really enjoy this feature for several reasons, and my opinion is that at most they can compromise by removing the upgrade option for brand new gear yet allow us to continue upgrading pre-5.2 gear. Some points:

-Being able to upgrade heroic 5 man gear is very useful for being able to work your way into LFR, this is of particular interest when leveling alts that you don't want to spend ridiculous amounts of gold on (and it seems wasteful spending thousands of gold on ilvl 476 epics just so you can get that extra boost to 470 to be able to do all LFR content)

-As far as alts go, most people probably want to do LFR on the first week of reaching 90, you don't want to spend several weeks grinding rep and valor capping when you already had to go through that on your main character

-Upgrading gives raiders an incentive to do more than just dailies for the coins. Some people complain that you are forced to valor cap to max your toon, however I would consider this a minor inconvenience compared to having to farm for coins and having to spend massive amounts of gold on expensive enchants like dancing steel.

-Upgrading items makes those items 'last longer', you can appreciate this now that the current system attempts to force you to change all gear each new tier due to stat inflation. You should be able to 'invest' in your favorite pieces of gear so that they are useful for a bit longer.

-Taking the option to upgrade prior tier gear out of the game is effectively removing gear, so if your lucky enough to have that 2/2 upgraded sha touched weapon or that 517ilvl upgraded heroic trinket you have something that nobody can ever get again (unless they put upgrading back in). Unless they decide to do something unprecedented and make all new items have amazing stat budgets, some people will have items that give them an advantage during a time of progression when this advantage is the most important.

I think that we need to consider a more sensible solution to the issue instead of taking the upgrade NPC out of the game. My proposal:

1. If you don't want new gear upgraded in 5.2, simply de-activate the ability to upgrade new gear until a time at which you will allow it.

2. Raise the 'floor' for upgrading gear with justice points, so that players will now be able to upgrade 5.0 tier raid finder gear with justice points, this will make it so that a newly leveled 90 post 5.2 will not feel hopelessly behind when it comes to the gear curve. This will create a 'boom' in 5 man dungeons and other justice farming activities which is great for the game overall since many people choose to get back into the game during major patch launches.

3. If you were to allow normal 5.0 raid gear to be upgraded for justice points, then players would still have an incentive to run 5.0 raids which will also be activated for cross-realm raids. This will result in more utilization of the content and an easier path for those looking to get into endgame pve. Popularizing raiding will lead to more social activity, which is at the core of keeping the community healthy.

Most people would rather die than think, and most people do. -Bertrand Russell
There is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. -Howard Zinn
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickThe nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. -George Orwell

You do know it was essentially a way to nerf content? I mean every single raider in your guild now gets a upgrade EVERY single week if he/she caps valor. I do agree that you should be able to use justice points to upgrade the old gear but the new stuff doesn't need a nerf.

You do know it was essentially a way to nerf content? I mean every single raider in your guild now gets a upgrade EVERY single week if he/she caps valor. I do agree that you should be able to use justice points to upgrade the old gear but the new stuff doesn't need a nerf.

It's an indirect nerf to content.

The way I see it, Blizzard seems to be done with putting in hardcore gear roadblocks. The people that it is important to for downing content on the bleeding edge will down it within the first 4 weeks. Sure you can say that it is a nerf to content, but if upgrading gear is a nerf then farming content for gear every week is also a nerf. Does this mean that every guild that downs H Shek'zeer and isn't still wearing partial heroic dungeon gear is somehow illegitimate?

Looking at the 'cutting edge' achievements also leads me to believe they are going to impose some sort of zone-wide buff/nerf that will make old raids easier. I would prefer that we see nerfing through gear progression/upgrading than having a zone aura that reduces boss damage and hitpoints by 20% and increases player damage and hitpoints by 20%.

Most people would rather die than think, and most people do. -Bertrand Russell
There is not a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. -Howard Zinn
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickThe nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. -George Orwell

It was a horrible system to begin with. Aaaaaaand painful if you upgraded an item and an upgrade would drop a day later...... or worse and the item that drops would be an upgrade if it was upgraded as well but right now it's slightly shittiër....

It was a horrible system to begin with. Aaaaaaand painful if you upgraded an item and an upgrade would drop a day later...... or worse and the item that drops would be an upgrade if it was upgraded as well but right now it's slightly shittiër....

Normally people upgrade items that are a long way away in terms of progress. If you get the tier helm drop from normal sha of fear and you know heroic sha of fear is a long way off then its a good upgrade. Upgrading a 489 cloak and getting a better one from the first heroic boss in MV smacks of bad planning.

I personally like the system. Sure gear is an indirect nerf to content but its more elegant than zapping 5% of a bosses HP weekly.

Not being able to upgrade the brand new gear is a good plan.
Still being able to upgrade old gear would be nice.
But I think the technical part of enabling for only some gear is too hard.
I think it is better to turn it off.

You should add an additional "No opinion" or "I don't care" option to your poll.

I spend most of my Valor Points on item upgrades, but I'm not opposed to upgrades being removed from the game. It's a nice feature, but without the opportunity to funnel Valor Points into item level upgrades, I will appreciate having Valor Points to spend so I can finally improve some weak points in gear for my secondary specialization.

However, I don't feel so strongly about gearing up my secondary spec. that I support removing the upgrade feature from the game. That's why I chose to spend most of my VP on item level upgrades instead of gear.

It was a nice feature, but not one that I feel is too important to remove. If I didn't have a secondary spec., I might lean more towards opposing its removal. The way things are now, though, I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other.

It was a horrible system to begin with. Aaaaaaand painful if you upgraded an item and an upgrade would drop a day later...... or worse and the item that drops would be an upgrade if it was upgraded as well but right now it's slightly shittiër....

What would you propose should happen with spare VP if the upgrade feature isn't to return? If you're raiding at a high enough level, you'll be at a point fairly quick where conventional VP usage won't help you any longer. Anything acquired after that is a complete waste.

Originally Posted by Erin

I only saw a few minutes of it but it looked slicker than a lubed up olympic swimmer fleeing from a shark.